"What are you doing tonight?", Troy asked. We walked out of the theater together, his arm still around me. "Nothing much. What's up?"
"Wanna come to dinner at my place?", he said. "Sure.", I gave him a smile. I may sound calm on the outside, but I'm freaking out inside. Okay Kenna, this probably means absolutely nothing. He's probably just trying to be nice.
Or what if it's more?
~
"Thanks again for having me tonight.", I sat at the table beside Troy, his parents across from us. "No problem.", Coach paused before continuing, "What was the hurry after practice today?", he asked, referring to the both of us.
"Um, we auditioned for Ms. Darbus's musical.", Troy said it like he was embarrassed about it. I guess it's understandable, seeing as his Dads the basketball coach. "Oh, that's good, I guess.", Coach replied.
"I'm going to go to the bathroom.", I whispered to Troy. "Down the hall and on the right.", he whispered back. I sat up from my seat and headed to the bathroom. I didn't really need to go, but I could tell Coach did not like the idea of us auditioning today. The tension was kinda unbearable.
I finished up and opened the door back up. I got to the end of the hallway before I stopped and listened in on Troy and Coach's conversation. Sure, it was ease dropping, but I'm part of the conversation so I feel like I should hear it.
"Y'all can't go around singing onstage when you both are captains of the team.", Coach, not so quietly, told Troy. "Why can't we? It's our choice, we can do what we want.", Troy said in the same tone.
"You can't go and mess everything up for your team just because you want to prance around onstage with some girl!", Coach's voice got even louder as he got even madder. "She's not just some girl!", Troy was practically yelling at this point.
I stepped out from behind the wall but neither of them noticed. They each continued arguing and yelling at each other. "And you're not just some guy Troy! You're the captain of the basketball team! You can't let her get in your head and mess everything up!", Coach yelled back.
"Guys, enough!", Mrs. Bolton cut in, pointing at me. They both looked at me, their angry expressions turning into embarrassed ones. "Kenna.", Troy walked up and put a hand on my arm. "I'm gonna go.", my voice was barely above a whisper.
Without saying goodbye, I walked out of the kitchen and through the front door. My walk quickly turned into a sprint as I ran all the way back to the hotel. I didn't even realize I was crying until after I got back and Mom asked what happened.
I didn't want to talk about it so I just shook my head and walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind me. Looking into the mirror, I was a mess. Tears stained my cheeks and my hair fell down into my face. The same way I looked after we found Dad and whatever her name was.
It's just like last time, the low after the high. The storm after the calm. The terrible after something amazing.